Army in the war, and most people were running away in the opposite direction. Tianjin was full of people who had been made homeless by the fighting. They brought disease with them. The city could not take all these people, and soon they were forced to live in rough camps outside the city. There were only about one hundred pupil left at St Joseph's School when Niang took me there. Only four of us lived in the school; the rest were day girls. Over the next few weeks, the number of girls fell. Soon we were all in one classroom, all ages from seven to eighteen. No Chinese was spoken during school hours. We all had to speak in English or French. I was unhappy Chinese had been the language of my school in Shanghai. I was lonely and wanted only to return to Aunt Baba I poured out my feelings in long letters asking for a few kind words from home. No letter ever came. I did not know of my parents' rule that I must receive no visitors, no phone calls and no letters.